Ghana...Here We Go!

So, life has been just a little bit crazy since we got home.

The first bit of craziness was that we got home 40 hours after we were originally scheduled to arrive.

Add in two precious littles who we missed more than anything and who want to play and play and play, and you get two very tired, trying to recover parents.

Next, Chris had surgery to blast up a kidney stone on Tuesday. Surgery went great, his pain was minimal, and he is now fully recovered from that.

Life has been going at full speed ahead since we returned, and I feel like my mind and body are just catching up!

I really want to get our stories written down on here because I never want to forget it.

In an effort to make these posts manageable for me, and for those of you that will read, I am going to split them up into three or four different posts.

I will try to get them done in a timely manner, but our weekend is equally busy to the last several days.  So, I will not make promises I cannot keep.

So, here we go.
{I'll be honest that I read over this before I hit "publish," and I feel like my words are scattered and highly inadequate.  I almost deleted and saved it for another day. But, this isn't about being eloquent.  It's about recording my experiences and thoughts so I won't forget how it felt to be there, in the moment. So I am going for it.}

We left our house for Houston on Wednesday afternoon, and Chris and I were feeling somewhat giddy about this whole thing.  We had been dreaming of this trip for two years--hoping and praying that our grand plan would actually come to be.  When Mercy Project began, we did not know where the Lord would lead us.  We only had vague conceptions of what our economic development projects would look like. One thing of which we were certain was that rescuing kids was our motivator and our number one goal. The Lord gives many people passions, and ours is to restore these children to life for which they were created.

So, as we headed out, it was very surreal that we were actually on our way to do this very thing--walk out of a village with children on their way to freedom and newness and wholeness.

Our giddiness lasted approximately 10 minutes once we got to the Houston airport and were told that we could not in fact board our plane to Nigeria without Nigerian visas.  What?!?  Two of our employees had just flown to Ghana by way of Lagos, Nigeria not 10 days before we were leaving and had encountered no problems. We were completely shocked.

Chris and Dean began to work with the kind lady at United Airlines, and we made it to our plane just in time--probably not 10 minutes before they closed the doors.

We were on our way.

And Satan continued to throw hurdles in our path. Sickness--first me, then Ronda, then Chris.

Another travel snag when we arrived at the Ghanaian airport and were told that all flights to Tamale (our preferred destination near the lake) were cancelled due to work on the runway. But, after checking three flights, we finally found one going to Kumasi where we could rent a car to take us 3 more hours to the other side of the lake.

We were literally five minutes from the lake when we encountered a homemade roadblock of brush and dirt where taxi drivers were protesting and not allowing cars through.  But,  nice man on a bicycle led our Sequoia down a walking path to the lake.

Never a dull moment in Ghana.

We rejoiced when we got to Yeji and saw our boat (with 2 motors) waiting to take us to Adovepke (the village in which we are working).

Finally, we were headed to get started rescuing 24 children.

As I close this portion, I want to share a sweet moment that the Lord blessed me with after all the craziness. As we were driving out of Kumasi on our way to Yeji, I saw an acacia tree (the tree that is in our logo) high above all of the other trees. At that moment, I had peace and felt the Lord reassuring me that He is with us, for us, and is over all.

From that moment on, I never had another ounce of doubt that all of this would work.
The Lord would make it work.
Because He is our Provider.  Our Sustainer. Our Giver of Life.
Our Yahweh Nissi. The Lord is my Banner.